All Quiet on the Western Dade (Radio) Front

Which doesn't bode well for FIU having its football games on radio this season.

From what I'm hearing -- and not hearing -- nothing's close except Sept. 1, Opening Night, at Duke. FIU and Beasley Broadcast Group don't have much time to get everything ironed out for this season. The window for selling advertising gets increasingly anorexic each day.

In today's world of online streaming and 72 ESPNs topping the pile of sports channels available via dish or cable, nobody would argue radio's role in bringing games to fans and alumni is what it was even 20 years ago. In fact, other than cars and some folks at the game, you wouldn't be wrong in asking, "Who listens to games on radio?"

But when the answer comes back, "Fans of almost every other Division I team," it's not what FIU wants to hear.

MORE FOOTBALL

I'm not a guy who looks at quarterbacks and says, "Oh, HE wins" or "How many games has HE won?" Too many other factors go into winning a football game or a series of them. It's no accident Ronnie Lott has the same four Super Bowl rings Joe Montana has. The four Super Bowl rings owned by Tom Brady and Peyton Manning? Adam Vinatieri has his own version of each. No coincidence.

That said, as I filled out my preseason All-Sun Belt Conference ballot during my week of news desk rotation, I could only think: barring injury, Jake Medlock, it's your position to lose and, after that, your Sun Belt title to lose.

OUTLAND

Offensive tackle Caylin Hauptmann could be better than Orlando Pace and Jake Long put together this year and he won't win the Outland Trophy (nation's best interior lineman) award this year. It's hard for voters to decently analyze and compare interior linemen from big name schools seen regularly. But that Hauptmann's even named to the 71-player watch list for the storied Football Writers Association of America award says FIU's getting more national notice.